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<title>“Please, call me Shinjirou.” by icemakestars</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23689897">“Please, call me Shinjirou.”</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/icemakestars/pseuds/icemakestars'>icemakestars</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>♡ 100 WAYS TO SAY "I LOVE YOU" ♡ [34]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Kamisama Hajimemashita | Kamisama Kiss</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Post-Canon, Reunions</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 17:21:50</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,101</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23689897</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/icemakestars/pseuds/icemakestars</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After a decade apart, Kurama and Ami finally reunite.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kurama Shinjirou/Nekota Ami</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>♡ 100 WAYS TO SAY "I LOVE YOU" ♡ [34]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1283213</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>33</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>“Please, call me Shinjirou.”</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I finished reading the manga for the first time and all I can say is Ami x Kurama? Criminally underrated. </p><p>I have more ideas to write for this series so hopefully I can get them out... I don't know how active the fandom is nowadays, but I would love to interact with people if you're out there... oof. </p><p>tumblr - gaymirajane</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>
  <span>No matter how many years passed, the letters never stopped coming. Kurama couldn’t reply of course - Tengu were forbidden to interact with women - but he cherished them, each and every one. Ami always included an address, in case he wanted to contact her - which he did, so badly that it became a physical pain in his chest - and Kurama watched as she moved from Tokyo to Kyoto and then back to the countryside, where he had first met her. It was lonely, in a way, how much Ami was changing and growing in the world whilst he was stood still, on the same mountain, but these were his brothers. His family. Kurama couldn’t abandon them without a leader. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tengu children mature at the age of eight; twelve at the absolute latest. Out of the new children to be born none expressed any great promise, so the next leader was decided and Kurama was able to return to the human world after a decade. Nobody was surprised when he left this time, because they knew that he would return, happier than he was then, because there were people waiting for him in the human world. People who didn’t belong in the mix of </span>
  <span>yōkai and kamisama and everything which came with the other world. He couldn’t involve Ami in such things, not anymore. Not when he loved her this much. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The last time they had seen each other, Kurama was uncertain; wavering. His heart wanted one thing, his head another, but now he was sure. He couldn’t allow Ami to wait for him anymore… if she wasn’t already married, that is. Kurama wasn’t confident that she would include that in her letters, and he hated how scared he was, but more than that he hated that it </span>
  <em>
    <span>could </span>
  </em>
  <span>scare him, that the notion of seeing Ami in the arms of another man made him want to devolve into a demonic beast and ravage those who stood between them. And that was selfish, and cruel, but he had never claimed to be otherwise. He was a yōkai, and Ami knew that. Ami </span>
  <em>
    <span>accepted </span>
  </em>
  <span>that. How could be apart from her any longer?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kurama felt guilty about turning up on her doorstep, but it couldn’t be helped. There was nowhere else for him to go, and nowhere else he would rather be. All he could do was wait, breathing deeply, trying to remain calm, in case a husband answered the door and his plan was left in tatters. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The relief that coursed through Kurama’s body when it was Ami who greeted him was second only to the love he held for her. She looked older, but not in a bad way. Her body had matured, had filled out in new and unexpected ways that Kurama hadn’t even dreamed of. Ami had cut her hair again, back to the bob she sported when they had first spoken. She was more beautiful than his memories had allowed, and his fingers itched to hold her, but Kurama had to be sure first. No matter how he searched, he could see no sign of a ring, and he despised himself a little more when that fact filled him with glee. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kurama...san?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m sorry to drop by unannounced.” He shifted uncomfortably, and that thought alone was laughable. He, the great Kurama! Nervous in the presence of a woman! Oh how hard he had fallen. In more ways than one. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ami reached out her hand, clenching it into a fist before it could reach him, and shook her head profusely, muttering to herself about waking up. She thought that she was dreaming. She thought it impossible that Kurama would come to see her. Kurama’s heart broke then, for the woman who waited for him and for the time that they had spent apart. He couldn’t wait any longer; Kurama knew he was being rude, and far too direct, but he simply had to know. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you seeing anyone, Ami?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She blinked slowly, surprise etched into every inch of her features. After a moments pause, Ami tipped her head to the side, curls bouncing thoughtfully.  “There is a man who I love very much.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kurama forced a smile. He couldn’t show how he truly felt; that would be selfish. It was difficult to remain composed, to keep the heartbreak from marring his good looks, when Ami took his palm and laid it flat across the chest. He could feel the warmth of her skin, and the thrum of her heart beat, and it was so human. So Ami. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But he disappeared up a mountain for ten years.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ami looked up at him through thick lashes, and it settled Kurama more than he would admit. This was the shyness that he remembered. He was in control again. And Ami wanted him still, after all of these years. It had been a long time since he had held a woman, but Kurama had thought about it every day since he had ascended the mountain. How the sheets were as soft as Ami’s skin, or how the blossom of the eternal sakura tree was the same shade as her hair. Ami was never far from his mind, and that made the decision now an easy one. Kurama cupped her cheek - now a delightful shade of pink - and lowered his lips to hers slowly, giving Ami the chance to pull away. She never did. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ami's lips tasted like strawberries, and her mouth was confident against his. She was soft, and pliable, and fit perfectly in his arms. Kurama didn't think he could love her anymore than he did already, but he was willing to be proved wrong. He kissed her for ten years worth of absence, a decade of pain and longing and desire. Kurama knew that Ami had felt it too, in the way that her hands fisted in his jacket, pulling him impossibly closer until the pressure was almost painful. She had never been this direct at school. Kurama didn’t think he minded. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kurama…” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was only when Ami pulled back to hiccough his name that Kurama realised she was crying. The smile on her lips, the light in her eyes, the slight tremble of her fingertips against his neck; they were all signs that she was happy, and that was all that Kurama had ever wanted, truly. He swiped the tears away with his thumb, pressed his lips against the cowlick which jutted from the crown of her head, and even if Mount Kurama was nowhere in sight, he knew what it felt like to come home. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Please, call me Shinjirou.” </span>
</p>
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